What was Tom Delay's Crime?

Other than conspiracy, the indictment against Representative Tom Delay does not specify the exact crime that he committed. David Frum's excellent column yesterday discusses a very fundamental objection to the case raised by E. J. Dionne.

A copy of the indictment against Tom Delay can be found her

A copy of the indictment against Tom Delay can be found here. There are problems with Delay (for example, his claim that there is no fat in the federal budget) as well as other Republican leaders, but after reading this indictment, I don't think that most people will think that there is much of substance here. I am not sure that Delay is any better or worse than most other Republican leaders, but that aside, this looks like a very weak case.

Mr. Jackson's statements seem completely correct to me, and indeed I have been making similar statements to people starting a week or so after the hurricane hit. The prediction is actually pretty simple given the areas of the city that were most harmed and that once people move away and make a life elsewhere it is unlikely that they will return. Other predictions include that families with children are less likely to return. There are no schools operating in New Orleans, and people will children will not be returning until schools are operating again. Since that group will stay away relatively longer, they will be less likely to return. However, the highlighted statement that the Jackson's prediction could be viewed as an administration goal seems amazing, and why the media doesn't make fun of this is equally puzzling. Thanks to the Drudgereport for flagging this article.

Tidbits about Suit to stop gun confiscation in New Orleans

Note from Don Kates:

. . . [Steve] Halbrook and local [Louisiana] counsel brought an emergency suit to enjoin illegal gun confiscations in and around New Orleans. And the NRA suit won an immediate order from a federal court enjoining the confiscations. In fact the defendants� position actually was that the gun confiscation statements were a hoax. Their intention was not to confiscate guns but to terrify and fool people into leaving their guns at home. Of course an "unintended" side effect of all their "no guns" statements was that police officers, believing that they were being told to confiscate guns, did so.

Hopefully this initial success will terminate in a permanent injunction, and lead to civil damage suits against the officers and their departments. . . .

Last night I heard that one of the reasons that the New Orleans police chief was fired this week was because of the gun confiscations that had occurred. Whether Nagin really had nothing to do with it is debatable, but at least it may indicate concern over future fall out (possibly the civil damages that Kates notes).

Well, I could think of a few other laws that I wish legislatures would move as quickly on. I suppose that the positive thing is that 39 states have not banned the practice. It is not clear to me why this practice, even if it became more common, gets everyone so upset.

9/26/2005

New Orleans Not so dangerous after Hurricane

A while ago I wrote about the murder rates in the New Orleans Superdome and the Convention Center, well since I wrote it up I thought that it was important that I posted that those claimed deaths were a hoax. The stroy here is an amazing one. The news media should cover this simply to shwo how wrong their coverage can be sometimes.

Gun Rights Policy Conference

I gave a couple of talks at the Gun Rights Policy Conference this weekend. Sonya Jones gives her take on the conference. The conference was a lot of fun. I had chance to go out to dinner with Larrry Elder and lunch with Andrew Breitbart, and it was really nice to see Sonya again. Larry also gave a great talk where he discussed his new DVD Michael & Me, which I highly recommend. You can also get the DVD at Amazon.com. Michael Reagan gave a very nice talk about his father. One interesting fact was that Ronald Reagan gave Michael a 22 caliber rifle on his 8th birthday. Other information on the conference can be found here.

Ending the Assault Weapons ban didn't cause the world to end

Armed Robbery rates plummet last year even though the so-called "assault weapons ban" expired. Armed robberies use guns, but it is that rate that fell despite increases in rapes and assault where guns are not usually used.